Police report stabbing downtown, arrest man in July 4 killing

Police made an arrest Saturday in the fatal stabbing that marred last weekend's Fourth of July celebration at the Inner Harbor, as officers began to investigate a separate overnight killing downtown.

Marcus Sterlin Harris, 32, turned himself in and was charged with first-degree murder in connection with the fatal stabbing July 4 of 26-year-old Joseph Lorenzo Calo, who had been in town from Alabama visiting family.

Both men were involved in a shoving match outside McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant on Pier 6, police said. Calo was later stabbed in the neck with a broken bottle.

Police provided few details or a motive into the stabbing during a brief news conference Saturday at police headquarters.

Police also had little information about a man who they said died after being stabbed in a fight at the corner of North Charles and Fayette streets around 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

Lt. Col. Jesse Oden, chief of detectives, thanked the person who provided police with the photo of Harris taken during the Inner Harbor incident, calling it "crucial evidence." He said "numerous people came forward with his identity" after police released the photo to news media.

Harris, whose latest address listed in court records was in the 400 block of Rosecroft Terrace in Southwest Baltimore, has a string of more than a dozen arrests, according to court records. Most of those arrests relate to drug and assault charges. In 2007 he received a three-year prison sentence for drug distribution.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, interviewed at a community event Saturday morning before the arrest was announced, said she expects to talk with Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III about downtown violence in light of the most recent incident.

"We're not willing to give up. I'm not willing to say there's nothing we can do," she said.

The July Fourth celebration at the Inner Harbor was also the scene of a shooting, as a 4-year-old boy was wounded by a bullet in the leg as he walked with his father and his father's fiancee along Pratt Street near a police command center. Oden did not provide any updates on the shooting of the 4-year-old, only saying that the case was progressing.

He said the stabbing early Saturday remains an open investigation. The victim, whose name was not released pending notification of his family, was with friends at the corner "when they became involved in a verbal disagreement with another group of individuals," said police spokesman Detective Kevin Brown. The disagreement escalated and became physical, resulting in the 25-year-old victim being stabbed in the leg.

Brown said the man later died at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

No information was available on how many people were involved in the argument, what type of weapon was used or how many times the victim was stabbed. No arrests have been made.

Brown said in an email that homicide detectives were "conducting a thorough investigation that will include reviewing the network of CitiWatch cameras that are in the area which may have captured some of the incident on video."